The rise of the conservative middlebrow taste: Class, consumption and politics in Turkey

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to use Bourdieusian concepts to understand the rise of conservative/Islamic taste in the context of Turkey's recent political transformations. To do so, we first focus on the historical roots of the strong connection between politics and consumption in Turkey by addressing the impacts of recent transformation of political conservatism on conservative taste. Second, we describe the current form of the conservative middlebrow taste as the choice of elegant and religiously proper through the content analysis of three conservative fashion magazines. Lastly, drawing on a field research conducted in Ankara, we present concrete examples of how conservative taste is embodied and used to perform class distinction within and beyond the conservative fractions.